Seminar Series - Creating a Community Open Online Courses (COOCs) model to explore the implications for Popular Education approaches in online space

Creating a Community Open Online Courses (COOCs) model to explore the implications for Popular Education approaches in online space

The emergence of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the Higher Education sector has raised questions of technology in education that go beyond the use of hardware and software and begun to challenge the structures and practices of education. While initial discussion is centred on the impact and response of the universities, the proliferation of this online education model has implications for other areas of learning and teaching. This seminar will report on a project that uses participatory action research to explore just how useful open, online education could be utilised to reach those opportunities for learning beyond the institutional and accredited routes. The research centres around Community Open Online Courses (COOCs) created for the project, a web based learning portal. This seminar focuses on the findings from the first cycle of the Action Research and reflects on issues of engagement, technology and motivation. Theories of Popular Education provide a framework for discussion with specific discussion on links to Myles Horton, Paulo Freire and a growing awareness of community education. Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the rhizome is considered as a potential approach to how learning and teaching emerge in a transformative ecology of education.